Hot Flashes Health Video

Video Transcript

JUSTIN C. K. DAVIS: Hi! I'm Dr. Justin Davis and today we will be discussing the condition known as hot flashes. Now, hot flashes while they can occasionally occur in men are most commonly associated with women, particularly women who are going through menopause. Menopause just to remind you is when women go through that change of life where their hormones begin changing and they stop having their menstrual cycle. So what exactly is it about menopause that causes one to have hot flashes? Well as a woman begins going through menopause, her hormone level start changing rapidly and particularly the hormone called estrogen begins changing and diminishing. Now, if estrogen begins decreasing, it has an effect and we don't really know why but it has an effect on the hypothalamus which is a part of the brain which is known as a thermostat of the body. Now the hypothalamus has many different functions but this is one particular function that causes hot flashes. As the hypothalamus overreacts, it sends a signal to the body that tells it that it's overheating. This signal starts to cascade where adrenaline, norepinephrine, serotonin, and all different hormones suddenly flash at once telling the body that its too hot, it has to get rid of heat and as it does this, the person, most often the woman going through menopause, will experience a sudden warm sensation or even sometimes an overpowering sensation of heat or warmth throughout the body, perhaps accompanied by rapid heart rate and other potential symptoms as well. Now this can be very annoying but it's rarely dangerous or causes any serious complications. It's very common, perhaps 85% of women that are going through menopause or within their first 2 years after menopause will experience hot flashes and another 50% of women even after they've completed menopause will continue having hot flashes for a number of years afterward. So there are different treatments available. Time of course if one because if most people will wait, the hot flashes will eventually go away or it may happen so infrequently that it really seems not worth taking an extra medicine or supplement to stop the hot flashes. Other treatments though are often aimed simply at different kinds of supplements like vitamins or different herbal remedies such as black cohosh root or there are also some different kinds of treatments such as acupuncture that can be effective in helping to control hot flashes. Now if these aren't adequate for you or you'd rather take another medicine, there are certain medicines that are by prescription, medicines that help stabilize the function of the hypothalamus or other medicines such as estrogen to artificially raise the levels of estrogen that can also help with the symptoms of hot flashes as well as other menopausal symptoms. So how do you prevent this? Well there is probably no way to completely prevent it, but certainly maintaining a healthy lifestyle, continuing to have a very active lifestyle, proper exercise which may help to keep the hormones more balanced can certainly play a role in limiting this. Action, if it's the first time you'd ever experience the hot flash, you may find it very alarming and as there may be other things that can mimic a hot flash, it's important to let your physician know. After you have discussed it and your physicals rules out other potential causes, if you know that it's a hot flash, then probably you'll feel relieved knowing that you've now joined the ranks of many women across the world that experience this as part of a changing part of their life and a natural change in their bodies chemistries.